Perhaps, Odisha was felt too far or too inconvenient for the State Government to explore huge coal block allotted to Jammu and Kashmir and National Thermal Power Corporation nearly five years back leading the state government to approach Union Coal Ministry for allotment of alternate location. In this connexion, we have learnt that on account of technical feasibility and financial viability , this coal block is proposed to be foregone otherwise a new exposure for a new venture to the concerned agencies of the state government would have meant sprinkling some sparkles of trying new areas of economic interest.
Allotted for a period of 25 years to Jammu and Kashmir, this promising block of coal having geological reserve of 130 and 266 million tons respectively was recommended for the state by the Inter-Ministerial Committee and under auction by competitive bidding and was to be explored jointly with National Thermal Power Corporation Limited . This joint venture was proposed keeping in view no knowledge of any expertise or experience of this kind by the Power Development Corporation and the NTPC as it was for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that any coal block was allotted to it and that too so far away for exploration. Nevertheless, much hype was created over this decision of the Union Government way back in 2013. However, the exercise of financial analysis, cost factors involved, returns expected etc proved the proposed exploration as completely non viable .
Not only the cost factor, the expertise and experience factor , what created more hurdles was the coal mine located in deep jungles in Odisha which required clearance and NOCs from various departments and agencies which would have been a time consuming exercise. Under these circumstances, it is well decided to not go in for the venture otherwise lucrative for the state and instead recommend to the Union Ministry for allotment of alternate site and the proposed joint venture would then hopefully succeed in the exploration at the new site.
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